Physics Colloquium with Thomas Iadecola on Quantum Dynamics in the Quantum Science and Technology Era

Nonequilibrium dynamics is a frontier topic in quantum many-body physics that has seen remarkable advances over the past decade. Essential to this progress has been the emergence of quantum technologies that probe such dynamics at the level of single atoms and photons. In this talk, I will describe how theoretical investigations of quantum dynamics can benefit from and contribute to the further development of such technologies. As an example of how quantum simulation experiments can spur theoretical insights, I will survey recent progress in the understanding of a new regime of quantum dynamics known as quantum many-body scars. I will then demonstrate how many-body scars provide an informative benchmark of many-body coherence on quantum computers by showing results from present-day IBM quantum processors programmed remotely through the cloud. I will conclude by discussing recent and ongoing work that applies lessons learned from the modern theory of quantum dynamics to the design of quantum simulation algorithms for near-term quantum hardware.